About

2024 Map

We bought this land in 1997, built a home on it in 2010 and fulfilled Suzan’s lifelong dream of moving back to Iowa in 2011.

In 2014, after learning more about the plight of beginning farmers and outrageous land prices, we realized we could be contributing to the problem, so we launched an effort to put our land “back into production.”

Inspired by the work of Mark Shepard, our friends at Red Fern Farm and many others, we renovated the old farm terraces to grow apples, pears, plums, berries and nuts. We hope someday limited resource farmers can use the fruit and nuts to supplement a larger sustainable farming operation at Draco Hill.

We also launched the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust in 2014 to help solve the problem of affordable land access for good. We’re pleased to report that thanks to hundreds of hardworking people and generous landowners, SILT was off to a great start when Suzan retired from it in 2023.

Our next adventure is building Draco Hill Nature Farm – an educational and entertaining outdoor space to enjoy the company of family and friends.

We invite you to join us in this adventure at Draco Hill. We consider it all part of the karmic economy.

HISTORY

• We purchased Draco Hill in 1997 from a well-known farmer in Cedar County. We continued to rent the farm land to local farmers or the local FFA chapter over the next 13 years. The pasture had cows in it for another two years.
• In 1999, with the expert advice of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the federal Natural Resource Conservation Service, we planted a riparian buffer between the agricultural land along the river and the river itself.
• By 2004 it was clear the oak and walnut trees in the planting were being chewed off by the deer every year. Sycamores were growing fast and furiously though. We didn’t have the facilities to cage the trees so we let nature take its course.
• In 2008 the flood put all of our riverfront land under water.
• In 2009 builder Roger Laughlin of Laughlin Design in West Branch IA finished construction on our new home. We earned a 5-star-plus Energy Star rating from the EPA for the energy efficient design of the house.  
• In the spring of 2011, our friends Lyle and Glen Waters prepared the farm ground on the north end of the property for a prairie planting and the ground at the south end for a tree planting. That April we installed a 3-D electric fence around 6 of the 7 acres that would be planted to trees. Later that spring Lyle planted the prairie seed and Kevin Kelly, from our local nursery, planted the tree seedlings.
• In the summer of 2011 we moved into Draco Hill full time. With only half of the summer left, we still started a small garden on the northwest side, and planted blueberry bushes and asparagus.
• That summer we added 3KW of solar. In 2012 we added another 3KW and that 6 KW meets most of our general electric needs for the house. (Heating and AC are provided by geothermal.)
• By summer 2012 we had expanded our garden on the south side of the house, expanded the beds around the fruit trees to include medicinal plants and expanded beds along the curved patio to include strawberries and garlic.
•  With the help of WWOOFers we also created berms and swales in key locations and tied in our roof drainage system to those gardens to help recapture rainwater, something on our minds with the worst drought since the 1930s hitting the state.
• 2013 was focused on growing vegetables more successfully, tending a new permaculture orchard built at a workshop in the spring and helping Morse Farm, an experiment in organic perennial farming, get off the ground.
• 2017 as Suzan’s work building the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust increased exponentially, and Paul suffered chronic medical issues, much of Draco Hill went into a holding pattern.
• 2019 we joined Hipcamp, a service that operates like AirBnb for campers, opening up three campsites along the Cedar River. Camping became particularly popular during COVID.
• 2020 COVID struck not long after our daughter Ayshe moved home from Japan. We spent the time together moving woodchips into the orchards, netting then harvesting honeyberry bushes, repairing our geodesic dome from the derecho, cleaning out the frog pond and other basic maintenance.
• 2023 Suzan retired from SILT to focus on the family and farming. We donated the farm in Morse in its entirety to SILT and scaled back while Paul recovered from ankle replacement surgery. Good health plus expanded orchards, new trails, new equipment for using organic matter to build soil and hosting Hipcampers even better were the goals for this year. All went well except we couldn’t anticipate the drought that set back a number of plantings.
• 2024 This year we launch Draco Hill Nature Farm and hope hundreds of area residents will come to events throughout the year and enjoy this beautiful place with us. As we approach 2025, we have nearly 200 people signed up to receive notifications of events and hosted about that many in our first year.